I just lost most of my contacts (email, addresses, phone numbers, etc.) and emails from the last few years.

The upside is that I had the recent fortune of having my laptop's hard drive replaced and my operating system and software upgraded.  I received an external hard drive for Christmas so I was able to back up most of my files and I have a lot of other files on my work computer.  I even borrowed some cleaner and polished my laptop up!  Overall, it was a good - if expensive and time-consuming - project.

If only I'd managed to back up my mailbox...

Now I have the exhausting task of replacing all the lost information that it took me much of the last three-plus years to gather.  I know there will probably be plenty of information I won't have any way of recovering, but I'm confident that when I'm done I'll have a much more organized and thorough database to work from.  However, if you're reading this, please feel free to shoot me an email so I can make sure I've got your info...

... and I'm backing up my mailbox daily right now...